Kansas City, Mo. - After a stellar performance defensively in two big conference playoff victories last week, Saint Xavier University senior goalkeeper Nikki Grant (Lemont, Ill./Lemont) earned Women's Soccer National Defensive Player of the Week recognition for the week ending November 8 when the weekly honor was released by the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) late Tuesday. Grant is the first individual from the Cougar women's soccer team to earn the prestigious honor this season. In fact, the last time the program received the national award was when former SXU standout Lissa Coby garnered the offensive recognition back on October 3, 2007.

Taking over for recently injured junior keeper Danielle Wagner (Worth, Ill./University of Illinois/Stagg), Grant was quickly propelled into the starting role for Saint Xavier and provided some clutch goalkeeping efforts in two big postseason victories last week. She earned the 4-2 win over No. 8 and previously undefeated Trinity Christian College (Ill.) in the semifinals of the CCAC Tournament. She posted 10 saves over 90 minutes to help the Cougars advance to Saturday's (November 8) championship game. In that title match, Grant recorded four saves in a 1-0 shut-out win over Trinity International University (Ill.) to notch her second blanking of the year.

Saint Xavier (10-9-1 overall) will now take on No. 12 ranked Trinity Christian College in a play-in game to determine which team will represent the CCAC in the 2008 NAIA Women's Soccer National Tournament. The play-in game will take place at 1 p.m. on Saturday, November 15, at the Redmond Athletic Complex in Bensenville, Ill.